But either way, even the best of the bills on the table would simply be a partial fix for our coverage problem, not a root-and-branch reform of our wildly inefficient, fiscally destructive health-care system. Obama made those compromises because, on the one hand, the public is afraid of change, and on the other hand, the Congress is stocked with folks who will scare them further and do their best to block needed reforms, and on the third hand -- government is many-handed beast -- industry has a lot of money and a lot of clout.[emphasis supplied]

1.  "Change We Can Believe In."
   
2.  Best speaker of all time!!@!!!  Makes people believe in hope change etc!!!
   
3.  "No more special interests!"  "I take no money from lobbyists!"

His answer was that he is very confident. There's a big battle going on, but he believes that the votes are there for genuine reform, with a public option, that will move the issue significantly forward.  

Every time I see him at one of these forums, my heart sinks. He's just not very good at dispensing with all the "noise" and bringing the key issues out in a clear, focused, and believable way.

He sounds slippery, like that guy from SNL years ago, "o.k, o.k, lemme put it another way....." He's trying too hard to be cute; and that smiley condescending smirk on his face doesn't help either.

A lackluster bill that merely punts the issue down the field will leave voters deservedly angry at Democrats,  and further constrain Obama's ability to put the federal government's financial affairs in order.  Reform of the health insurance industry with a competttive public option is, with the exeception of Defense cuts which are insanely never on the table, the lowest hanging fruit to geting the government on sounder financial footing.  

A perfect performance by Obama may, in other words, not even be enough to pass an imperfect bill, much less a perfect bill.

Here's a question though, why are Yglesias and Klein intent on excusing a potential Obama failure on health care reform?

Because they believe it is going to fail.

This has been the most mis-managed thing in the world. First, the people who elected him, the youngsters aren't all that interested in health care. His base in their middle years aren't happy because it is not really health care reform but an attempt to add uninsured to insurance... it is not national HC and it is not single player.. and he has frightened and angered the people who have enough time and money to fight against it because they recognize that he wants to take money from Medicare to pay for it.

In addition, he was not use to an unfriendly press and what he thought was wisdom and expertise was really just a press corp that let him do as he pleased... When that changed he had, and has, no idea of what to do. (Hint: Don't have your Speaker of the House call citizens un-Ameican for protesting. If they are making an as* of themselves it will show. You just hide it.)

That isn't to say it's not a laudable goal. Merely, that it's political B.S. and people smell it.

Otoh, you do need a serious presidential commitment, a real and not half-hearted one (see Carter, Jimmy), and some smarts to see the process through.  FDR had to be committed to social security, even with over 70% of Congress being in his party.  Give risk-averse Congress the opening to do nothing or very little, and that's what will happen.

And Lyndon Johnson went for Medicare and Medicaid because he was daunted by the challenge of comprehensive health-care reform.

LBJ went for a simple Medicare only bill originally, actually.  He may have been daunted by going for something much bigger, or he may have been more concerned just about getting something passed -- barebones Medicare -- because there was a presidential election coming up in Nov 64 and he wanted to run on that very achievable accomplishment and didn't want to go whole hog on UHC because he knew that would be dicey and time-consuming, at best.  

Turns out the smarter person on Medicare, who wisely said No to Lyndon and decided to wait until after the election, was the House chair who made the key delay decision, allowing a much more robust bill to come out of comm'ee just a few months later.